Think Multicultural

As a practicing professional in the online media industry I truly cherish the relationships that I have established with our online media partners. These relationships can be a key factor when it comes to delivering results for our clients.

To my disappointment, I have noticed that most publishers are highly involved when it comes to selling their product but when it comes to optimizing a campaign there is a HUGE drop off in customer service. If I had a nickel for every publisher that is proactive about campaign optimizations, I could probably afford to buy a stamp…….in Africa.

In my opinion, it’s not fair to leave the entire burden of campaign optimization on the agency side. I also think campaign optimization is a great opportunity for publishers to show that they care and to continue to cultivate agency relationships. The bottom line is that as our trusted partners we expect to get something from you too (Besides impressions and invoices).

So my advice to all publishers is: don’t get lazy! Help us help our clients. We’re all in this together.

JM

Despite Bill Gates’ investment, PlanetOut continues to have problems.

According to news reports, PlanetOut has retained Allen & Company to assist in the exploration of strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company.

I continue to believe that the Gay & Lesbian media and advertising market continues to be an excellent market in the long run. In fact, if PlanetOut finds the right acquirers for its properties, it could make them stronger. If not, there will be opportunities to fill the holes left by the 800 pound gorilla in this market.

I had a terrific meeting yesterday morning. It was coffee with two guys from a general market ad agency. One was an account manager and the other was their head of multicultural initiatives. The great thing about this meeting was that they were as happy to be meeting with me (a media person) as I was to meet with them (agency people).

The reason for the meeting is that the agency is helping one of their big accounts reach out to multicultural audiences. To do this, they are utilizing all the same mediums that they use to reach the general market – TV, radio, print, and online.

That’s right – online. For a general market agency like this, online is a natural part of the media plan. For them, online isn’t new. What is new is figuring out the multicultural media landscape. Which is why they were excited to meet with me.

Because I spend all of my time working in multicultural online media, I spend a lot of time educating clients on the market – not on Admixture’s position in the market, but about the whole multicultural online market. Depending on the client’s needs, I start with Univision.com or AOL Black Voices or Gay.com and work my way through Batanga or BlackEnterprise and then on to all the sites like those that Admixture represents. I don’t do this out of altruism. I do it because when agencies become comfortable that there is an online multicultural media market, they become comfortable launching campaigns in that market. These general market agency guys really want to get into multicultural online media, they just need a little introduction to it.

And that’s the threat to multicultural agencies – Hispanic, African-American, GLBT, or otherwise. If the multicultural agencies don’t embrace the online market, the online agencies are going to embrace the multicultural markets and build up capabilities, experience and know-how that gives them a competitive edge with clients going forward.